Introduced | November 28, 1990 |
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TLD type | Country code top-level domain |
Status | Active |
Registry | China Internet Network Information Center |
Sponsor | Chinese Academy of Sciences |
Intended use | Entities connected with People's Republic of China |
Actual use | Very popular in China (the largest ccTLD) |
Structure | Names may be registered directly at the second level or at the third level within generic second-level categories or Chinese province codes |
Documents | China Internet Domain Name Regulations |
Dispute policies | CNNIC Domain Name Dispute Resolution Policy |
Website | CNNIC (domestic); NeuStar (foreign) |
.cn is the country code top-level domain (ccTLD) for the People's Republic of China.
Domain name administration in mainland China is managed through a branch of the Ministry of Industry and Information. The registry is maintained by China Internet Network Information Center (CNNIC). Neulevel has entered into a partnership with CNNIC to market .cn outside mainland China.
Any individual may register for second-level domain names. However, the registry has created a set of predefined second-level domains for certain types of organizations and geographic locations. Registrations for such third-level domains were available before second-level domains became available in 2004, and registrants of third-level domains were given priority for names at the second level.
The two-letter abbreviations are the same as those found in GB/T 2260-2002.
Internationalized domain names with Chinese characters may be registered at the second level under the .cn top-level domain.
On 25 June 2010, ICANN approved the use of the internationalized country code top-level domains .中国 (China in simplified Chinese characters, DNS name xn--fiqs8s) and .中國 (China in traditional Chinese characters, DNS name xn--fiqz9s) by CNNIC. These two TLDs were added to the DNS in July 2010.
CNNIC proposes Chinese domain names in .公司 (".com" in Chinese) and .网络 (".net" in Chinese). However, these are not recognized by ICANN and are only available via domestic domain name registrar.